Gen 14.18-20; 1Cor 11.23-26; Lk 9:11b-17 – They ate as much as they wanted 

• Mass setting: Mass Shalom
• Motet: Panis Angelicus  – Bread of the Angels (Franck)
• Communio: (Gregorian 1 Cor 11: 24-25) Hoc corpus quod pro vobis tradetur: hic calix novi testamenti est in meo sanguine, dicit Dominus: hoc facite, quotiescumque sumitus, in meam commemorationem: This is my body which is given up for you; this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood” says the Lord. “Each time you do this, do it in memory of me”.
• Hymns: Sweet Sacrament divine  DIVINUM MYSTERIUM, TIS 502 Soul of my Saviour ANIMA CHRISTI
• Organ Prelude: Voluntary in ‘f’ minor – Thomas Roseingrave (1690-1766)
• Organ Offertorium: Verso 1 – Antonio Valente (c.1520-c.1580)
• Organ Voluntary: Toccata per il ‘Deo Gratias’ – Giambattista Martini (1706-1734)

Organist: Bransby Byrne

Cantor: Noel Debien

Notes on the Organ Postlude

Toccata per il ‘Deo Gratias’ – Giambattista Martini (1706-1734)

Franciscan friar Padre Martini was a notable Italian composer. His enormous fame as a music teacher made Italy’s Bologna a place of pilgrimage in the 18th century.

Martini was a friar of great musical and spiritual influence. He was ordained in 1729, after becoming chapelmaster of San Francesco in Bologna in 1725 and his pupils included J.C. Bach, Christoph Gluck and W.A. Mozart. He was a friend and correspondent of the leading scholars of his time, including Martin Agricola, Pietro Metastasio and Jean-Philippe Rameau.

The love of music started for friar Martini as a child, educated personally by his violinist father. Then his fine teachers included experts in harpsichord, singing and organ (Luc’Antonio Predieri) and counterpoint (Antonio Riccieri).

We all know how influential the Franciscan order has been, and it should not be surprising to know that Friar Martini was a friend and adviser to Leopold Mozart. Leopold had asked him to give advice about his little boy: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Very sadly, no-one has yet edited and published the greater number of friar Martini’s sacred compositions. There’s a challenge.